I remember when I first saw Morgan Freeman. It was in the movie “Glory” about the heroic 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of black soldiers, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the son of a famous abolitionist, who were wiped out at Fort Wagner, SC in the Civil War.

He followed that up with “Lean on Me”, the movie about legendary Eastside High Principal “Crazy” Joe Clark, who took the worst school in New Jersey, and turned it around through leadership and discipline.

In those two movies, Mr. Freeman played men of integrity and conviction.  His presence on the movie screen was riveting.  It did not matter one iota what color he was. The man could act.

Friday Evening, in an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, who took over Larry King’s time slot, and, by the way, is failing miserably, Morgan Freeman threw his personal integrity right out the window:

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Has Obama helped the process of eradicating racism, or has it in a strange way made it worse.

MORGAN FREEMAN: Made it worse. Made it worse. Look at, look, the Tea Partiers, who are controlling the Republican Party, stated, and what’s this guy’s name, Mitch O’Connell. Is that his, O’Connell?

MORGAN: Yeah, Mitch McConnell, yeah.

FREEMAN: Mitch McConnell. Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term. What’s, what does that, what underlines that? “Screw the country. We’re going to whatever we do to get this black man, we can, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.”

MORGAN: But is that necessarily a racist thing?

FREEMAN: It is a racist thing.

MORGAN: Is it not Republicans, wouldn’t that say that about any Democrat president?

FREEMAN: No, they would have gotten rid of Bill Clinton if they could have.

MORGAN: They tried.

FREEMAN: They did try, but still. I don’t, they’re not going to get rid of Obama either. I think they’re shooting themselves in the head.

MORGAN: Does it unnerve you that the Tea Party are gaining such traction?

FREEMAN: Yes.

MORGAN: Why?

FREEMAN: Well, it just shows the weak, dark, underside of America. We’re supposed to be better than that. We really are. That’s, that’s why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected president. “Ah, look at what we are. Look at how, this is America.” You know? And then it just sort of started turning because these people surfaced like stirring up muddy water.

Disappointing, really.

Yesterday, something happened in the Sunshine State to refudiate Mr.  Freeman’s jaded opinion, concerning racial animus in these United States.

The Washington Times reports that:

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain [who happens to be a black Conservative] won the Presidency 5 straw poll here Saturday, delivering a blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s front-runner status and a victory for a candidate who has struggled to transform his grass-roots popularity into strong showings in national polls.

“Tonight’s winner is Herman Cain,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced. “It shows you something: The road to the White House comes through Florida, and it pays to spend time here.”

Mr. Cain received 37 percent of the more than 2,600 votes cast.

“Thank you to the Republican voters for this incredible honor of being named the winner of the Presidency 5 straw poll in Florida today,” Mr. Cain said. “This is a sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that cannot be ignored. I will continue to share my message of ‘common-sense solutions’ across this country and look forward to spending more time in Florida, a critical state for both the nomination and the general election.”

The two national front-runners — Mr. Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — placed second and third. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, meanwhile, landed in fourth place; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was in fifth place; and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, sixth. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann finished last.

Before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s, life was taken from him in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, he spoke these words on the Washington Mall, in our nation’s capital on August 28, 1963:

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Now, it’s no secret that I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee and currently live in Northwest Mississippi. 

About an hour down I-55 from me, is the town of Clarksdale, Mr. Freeman’s hometown, where he happens to co-own a very popular nightspot, frequented by folks of all shades, shapes, and sizes.

You would have thought that he would have known better.